Uber Releases Extensive Report Detailing Sexual Abuse Complaints

Uber Car

Uber has been facing increased pressure as they deal with a number of lawsuits from passengers who claim they were sexually assaulted during a ride. In addition to the lawsuits, Uber is also facing scrutiny from politicians across the world, who claim the ride-sharing company is not doing enough to ensure riders are safe.

In an effort to show transparency, Uber compiled an extensive 84-page report detailing the number of sexual assault complaints they received in 2017 and 2018. According to their findings, Uber received a total of 5,981 reports of sexual abuse over those two years.

They were 235 reports of rape in 2018, which was a slight increase from the 229 reported rapes in 2017. There were also 587 reports of attempted rape during that time period. Most of the reports involved groping, with 3,000 people filing complaints with the company. They also received 1,930 reports of unwanted kissing.

While passengers filed most of the reports, 7% of them were filed by drivers. The report also showed a major disparity between the gender of the victims, which found that 89% of the victims were female.

The report also detailed the number of accidents and fatalities of passengers and drivers. There were 107 accidents, which included incidents in which the driver was not at fault, or when the passengers were struck after exiting the vehicle. There were 19 murders and Uber said that seven of the victims were drivers, eight were passengers, and four were third parties.

Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer, told NBC News that he is not surprised by the high number of reported sexual assaults.

"Each of those incidents represents an individual who has undergone a horrific trauma," West said. "But I’m not surprised by those numbers. And I’m not surprised because sexual violence is just much more pervasive in society than I think most people realize."

West says that Uber is taking safety seriously. He pointed out that Uber has tripled the number of people working on its safety team to 300, and plans to keep expanding the team.

The report pointed out that while the number of reported sexual assaults is unacceptable, they represent just 0.0002 percent of Uber’s 1.3 billion rides in the United States. The report did not look into reports of sexual assault in other countries. 

Photo: Getty Images


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